Nanocomposite materials have been the subject of much academic and industrial literature due to a large extent on their ability to impart new properties for a given a material. In particular, polymeric nanocomposite materials have been of considerable interest. As used here, nanocomposites or polymeric nanocomposites are typically polymer systems containing inorganic particles with at least one dimension in the nanometer range of the polymer matrix.
Although much work has been done with nanocomposites, only a few methods have been suggested for producing nanocomposites much less a method that would lend itself to producing nanocomposites on a commercial scale such as through in situ production. For example, melt blending has been a method of choice in the art. See e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,807,629, 6,060,549, WO 02/100935, and WO 02/100936.
In other areas, aqueous solutions are used to produce coatings comprising, inter alia, an elastomer and a dispersed exfoliated layered filler. See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,087,016 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0198767 A1. See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,372 (Example 1).
In yet another area, U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,121 discloses, inter alia, a polymer blend composition including a first polymer and a second polymer, which are immiscible, and a compatibilizer. The compatibilizer includes an organoclay, which has been functionalized by an intercalation agent, whereby it has an affinity for each of the polymers. The intercalation agent is a reaction product of a polyamine and an alkyl halide in a polar solvent. The preferred alkyl halides are alkyl chloride and alkyl bromide and the preferred polar solvents are water, toluene, tetrahydro furan, and dimethylformamide.
However, past endeavors have yet to provide for processes to produce polymeric nanocomposites that provide for optimal flexibility in producing a finished product and/or lend themselves to commercial production such as, for example, providing processes that allow for high throughput and/or simplicity in design when combining the reactor system with downstream finishing processes.